on a new NICU. . .

It’s funny typing those words, because as I looked around nursery today, the people were the same, so it seemed familiar – but then I looked up at the lights and over at the monitors and down and the floor, and I just started smiling. . .

We are back in our new home, and it is amazing to have the place we are match the care we give. One of the moms who moved from the temporary NICU over with me, stopped me and said, “This place is so smart – you know I was here in 2010 and the room was not good . . .this. this is so good.” (smart means cool, beautiful, etc. in Kenya). The amazing thing, is that even though in 2010 the room was not good, she came back to us 12 years later because of the care, and she was able to see and appreciate the difference.

There was an article published in BMJ at the end of last year that looked at survival and mortality in prems in Kenya 10 different hospitals – our mortality is half that of any hospital listed (thanks to the Peds and OB teams), and our survival of preterm is 30% better than any other hospital listed.

It’s hard to capture the changes in photos – the skylight in the hallway that gives our mother sunlight on their long days in NICU, the thought that went into the isolation rooms and how they were configured, the way the desk was placed and the shelves were fit, the hostels for the moms, the storage, space, the lighting, the proper sluice (cleaning room) for an ICU, a bright expressing room for the moms, the type of floors that are easily cleaned . . . you should just come take a tour  – I have given 3 today already

I walked through the site almost every day before it opened for the last 3 weeks, checking on the way the shelves were finished or the sockets were placed or the floors were completed. The project manager (David’s friend Raymond), the architect, and the head contractor made multiple adjustments in the last 2 weeks to get it perfect, and as we rolled the first babies in, it was all worth it. . .

We will keep figuring out the space, keep adjusting it until it is perfect – I have added the signs from the previous post, we have exhausted my label maker for lockers and keys and crash carts, and Agnes and I have a running list of the final adjustments, but over all if feels like it was always meant to be our home –

Below are some pictures from move in day. . .but really – come see. Come see what we are doing, and celebrate with us the lives this will impact –